Longwood Gardens Mid Morning

Today is a day for family time.

So we chose today as the day to renew our annual pass and make two trips to Longwood Gardens.

We are going back pending some thunderstorms this evening to see the night time version of "Light" at Longwood Gardens.

Monarch Caterpillars

The milkweed is disappearing with all these caterpillars around. I need to make sure to grab some seeds from the pods and get them into the ground so we have more for next year.

Some are forming chrysalis, and a couple have died before shedding their skin. Wonder what exactly happened (the ones that didn't make it weren't touched by human hand, so I am wondering if a disease or parasite may be the cause)...

A few days of rain...

We have had some rain in the last few days and the garden is really coming back to life...

Rainy Day Garden & Tea

Getting ready to glaze up some new beads in the clay studio & took a quick break to look at the garden while the rain has slowed up...

Now back inside with a warm cup of tea (basement clay studio = damp & cold)...

End of May Garden

I love seeing the growth of plants in my garden. And I'm trying to keep on top of the weed invasion in my garden this year while mentally figuring out the future layout and design of some areas.

Here are some shots I took yesterday - intermittent rain sprinkles were going on through the day...

The Week Leading Up To Mothers Day Gardening

I love it when I have the time to sit and notice the garden growing...

There are all kinds of simple changes happening every day out there!

And I have renewed hopes that 2012 will be a much better gardening year than 2011.

So a week and a half ago - I committed an entire Saturday to cleaning up the 2011 leftovers... 

 I divided and replanted...

 Weeded and planted some annuals.

I like to have my fair share of native perennials and random annuals to add something different every year.

 Treated myself to a re-blooming Lilac bush for Mother's Day (from the kids to me).

 They are already acting like goof balls when I ask them to pose by it for size over time sake...

 And we very much enjoy these wonderful spring days...

 And I know we're on the right path with gardening with our local wildlife in mind,

because the Red Admirals have been around already and are quite "all over the place"...

 The week leading up to Mother's Day for me was much better than actual "mothers day".

It just stinks to miss your mom so much on days like this.

Distractions help (like a few minutes out in the garden with Riley after his nap, going to family events), but the day had it's bad moments in between...

We went and got new flowers for my mom's grave...

Chloe loves helping me pick out the arrangements for mom and we always add in some little birds and butterflies, and a few things with sparkles (my mom loved things that sparkled).

Always tying in things remembered that she loved...

I just hope that if someone comes to replace these with another, that they have the courtesy to leave these there for us, or contact me that they are putting up replacements.

What is grave site etiquette for this sort of thing anyway?

Guess I could google it...